Palm Does Windows

Microsoft execs seem to have taken a liking for Dale Carnegie, as they’ve
lately been making new friends and even influencing old enemies. Joining Sun
as enemy-turned-ally is Palm, which has a new phone
that runs on Windows. If you remember, Palm made it big with an ultra-simple
handheld OS that was easy to use and never crashed. I can’t imagine how
Palm creator and still CTO Jeff Hawkins decided to use a Microsoft OS. It goes
against everything he ever stood for.

PCs on the Move
Sales of PCs will grow
some 14 percent this year, according to analyst firm IDC. The $300 Dell
advertised in Parade magazine is helping fuel this growth, but I have to wonder
if the 200-plus million machines shipped this year equals that many new users.
These days it costs less to buy a new PC than to soup up the memory and add
hard drive space. And it’s just as cheap to buy a new computer as it is
to repair a machine overrun with malware.

Microsoft Vets Are Happy -- Really
BusinessWeek recently ran a huge
story about poor morale and defections at Microsoft. So what does the PR
machine in Redmond do? Why, profile a bunch of ecstatic long-time employees,
of course! If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy about Microsoft, hop on over
here.

Overestimating Google
A News.com
pundit either believing the hype or looking for a reaction recently argued
that Google is a major threat to Microsoft’s ultimate existence. The Google
PR team is pretty darn good and Eric Schmidt is awfully smart, but let’s
get real here people. Google is a search engine. Does the company have a browser,
a client OS, a server OS, telephone OS, a productivity suite, a game console,
a high-end database, CRM apps, a massive suite of development tools and a huge
Internet service?

No. It can search the Web and now your desktop for data, and its toolbar blocks
a decent amount of pop-ups. This is the company that supposedly has Microsoft
on the ropes? Isn’t it kind of like Urkel fighting Mike Tyson? Sure Google
and Urkel are annoying, but neither has a knockout punch.

New Chinese Rules
You think American forum moderators are tough on your comments, try posting
in China. Never a paragon of freedom, communist China is clamping down on free
speech more and more each day. In the
latest move, the government has decided to restrict any speech that’s
not in the interest of socialism and must offer “correct guidance of public
opinion.” As much as we might hate our loud-mouthed pundits on both sides
of the political fence, at least we give them the freedom to be obnoxious.

About the Author

Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.